Episode 6 - Chapter 3

I was halfway to the door before I realised that Oak had followed me. He positioned himself out of sight from whoever would be beyond and watched me closely. The knock came again, louder, more insistent.

“Alright,” I shouted, “I'm coming.”

Opening the door I found myself looking at a teenage boy. I say boy, but I really mean urchin – he could've stepped straight from the pages of a Charles Dickens novel, right down to the soot.

“Yes?” I smiled at him.

“We would speak with Oak,” the boy replied in a voice so deep it was more felt than heard.

“I'm sorry...” I started without thinking, but Oak cut past me.

“That's fine Edward,” he said, “I shall take it from here.”

Episode 6 - Chapter 2

For a moment it felt like the room froze when we heard that knock. We both looked at Oak for direction.

“Should we answer it?” I asked.

“To ignore it,” Oak replied, “Would restrict our vision.”

“I don't know what that means,” Edward said, “Why do your lot have to talk in riddles all the time?”

“Not riddles,” Oak asserted, “Observations from a different perspective.”

“Oh for heaven's sake,” I said, as the knock came again. “Do we answer the door or not?”

“We are gathering information,” Oak said sternly, “Information is knocking at the door. It would be imprudent to turn it away.”

“I'll go,” Edward got to his feet, “Wouldn't want to be imprudent.”

Episode 6 - Chapter 1

In a place that is no place, many voices speak, but only a handful are heard.
 
“How does your scheme progress?” one voice asks, the sound of a quill scratching parchment.
 
“The pieces are sliding into their places,” a second voice replies, smooth and oily.  “The girl has reached her adulthood, and is reacquainted with the boy.  There will be wedding bells in due course.”
 
“And Father?” A third voice, full of the excitement of a puppy on a sunny day.  “He does not know?”
 
“For the last time,” replied the oily voice sternly, “He is not our father!  Nor is he our brother.  He was simply the first of us.”
 
“But does he suspect?”
 
“I doubt it, he's a little out of touch these days.  Even his latest title belies his senility.”
 
“So now...?” the first prince asked.
 
“Now we wear masks of hostility and indifference with each other, and await our moment.”

Fifth Interlude - Part Fifteen

 “Love is for humans,” Ash tells him. “The Forest does what it must. Now it must decide what to do with you.”

Wesley bows his head. “I will accept whatever the Forest decides,” he says quietly.

“One last question: why have you come back?”

“My work with Rebecca and Lillith is over, they passed away last week. I only remained in the Warp for them. The Forest is where I belong.”

“Is there anything else you'd know before a decision is taken?”

Wesley shakes his bowed head gently and slowly.

“Very well,” Ash begins, “The Forest thanks you for seventy years of exceptional service. By going with that woman, you yourself provided the balance that was needed. It was an unconventional approach, the Forest acknowledges that, but these things should not always end with bloodshed. The Forest welcomes the return of an agent, and salutes your actions, actions that leave the Warp a better place. You are granted leave to be with your species, for a period no less than fifty winters.”

Fifth Interlude - Part Fourteen

 “It was you that asked,” Wesley retorts. “You wanted to know.”

“We know where you went, all the good things you did,” Ash replies. “The spiders, remember? The questions were to establish your level of candour.”

“And...?”

“You pass. Tell me, what do you think should happen to you.”

“That's not for me to decide,” Wesley tells him. “I'll respect whatever the Forest decides.”

“If the Forest should decide to take you back, could you be trusted to return to active duty?”

“I would accept that, if that's what the Forest wanted.”

“Really? I find that a surprise, considering for the last seventy years you have failed to do your duty and call a Specialist. That's grounds for extinction, don't you think.”

“I fell in love,” Wesley declares loudly. “There is no duty in love!”

Fifth Interlude - Part Thirteen

 “How long were you in Berlin?” Ash asks.

“A few years,” Wesley replies. “Rebecca worked as a private tutor, Lillith danced at the weekends, and I was a rat-catcher.”

“So why did you leave?”

“The atmosphere started to get darker, uglier. I'm sure you can imagine. One night Lillith declared that the soul had gone from Berlin and it was time to move on. We joined a circus for a time, Lillith did Tarot readings, and I mucked out the cages. After that we had an olive grove in Spain, but left when the fighting started. We went south, into Africa, then west to the Americas.”

“I think,” Ash interrupts, “That that's more than enough of your autobiography for now, don't you?”

Fifth Interlude - Part Twelve

 “What happened?” Ash demands, “And who was it?”

“Corvus,” Wesley tells him. “I walked round a corner and there he was, standing right in front of me.”

“What did you do?”

“I threw myself at his mercy, begged him, pleaded with him. I told him that there had to be another way.”

“What did he do?”

“He looked at me, rather taken aback I think, then it seemed like something just occurred to him. He said “Maybe you're right. Good luck with your thing.” And then he walked away, I never saw him again.”

Ash returns to his seat. “You told him there had to be another way?”

“Yes,” Wesley confirms, “Is that significant?”

“It may well be.”

Fifth Interlude - Part Eleven

 “So,” Ash demands, “You were in Berlin at the time of the Weimar?”

“Yes, we were.”

“How was that?”

“It was...” Wesley pauses for a moment, smiling as he tries to find the right words. “It was the most magical place to be, alive with possibility and wonder. I didn't see it at first, I saw imbalance and the Weave on every corner, but they did. And I came to see it through their eyes, and it was wonderful.”

“That's certainly one way to describe it,” Ash spits with contempt.

“I'm sorry?”

“I was there, a great many of us were.”

“I know,” Wesley replies, “The first time I saw one I thought he was there for us.”

Fifth Interlude - Part Ten

 “No,” Wesley confesses. “At first I was biding my time. Just getting myself back. I didn't really care for her, I just didn't want her to die. From time to time I'd talk to Rebecca about letting Lillith go, but it always ended with shouting and harsh words. And then later, of course, I didn't want Lillith to go either.”

“You didn't care for her?” Ash repeats, standing behind him, “But you couldn't pass the decision on her fate to somebody better qualified?”

“Okay, maybe I did care, maybe I lied to myself, I don't know. There was something about her that made me feel protective, I don't know why. The more I got to know her, the more those feelings grew.”

Fifth Interlude - Part Nine

 “You did what?” Ash asks, rising to his feet.

“I fell in love,” Wesley replies.

“You're the fucking Weasel!” says Ash angrily, rising to his feet. “How the fuck does a weasel fall in love.”

“Slowly. Over a long period of time.”

“Yes,” says Ash, as he begins to pace. “A long period of time. But why run at all? The Forest knew where you were at all times. We had the spiders on you.”

“Instinct. I thought another agent would be sent, that we should get away quickly, keep moving. Took me a while to work it out. By the time I did we were in Berlin.”

“And this was...?”

“1925.”

“And in those two years you never thought to call for a Specialist?”

Fifth Interlude - Part Eight

 “Indeed you did go with her,” Ash looks at Wesley for the first time. “Tell me,” he asks, “What were you thinking, and why run at all?”

“W-well,” Wesley stammers, “Given how old some of the stories are, and what those stories tell, I hoped I could mitigate some of the negative impact her presence in the Warp might have.”

“So you were aware there would be a 'negative impact'?”

“Of course I did,” is Wesley's exasperated reply. “I was an agent of the Forest. I just couldn't bear to have any more blood on my paws, not just then. What I did was, I thought, the next best thing. I thought I could try to change her mind over time, until I was ready to take the other approach.”

“But in the end you did neither. Why is that?”

“I fell in love.”

Fifth Interlude - Part Seven

“You have to understand,” Wesley implores, “This happened at the end of a bad run for me. Starting with that bloody unsinkable ship, then the Great War, which was hard on all of us, I know. But then there was Kanto.”

“Mr Mustela, this is the 20^th Century,” Ash retorts, “We're all having a bad run. You don't see the rest of us just giving up on our duty.”

“It's not Mister Mustela,” Wesley replies, sheepishly. “Just Mustela.”

“I am aware of that,” comes the answer. “I just wasn't sure if you were. So you couldn't bring yourself to call a Specialist, what did you do instead?”

“I went with her.”

Fifth Interlude - Part Six

“She thought about it for a while,” Wesley continues. “Then her lips tightened as she nodded to herself. She told me she wasn't going to submit to anything, to go ahead and call my specialist, she was leaving. She'd packed a bag already, so when she started to go I had to grab her and tie her to a chair. I pleaded with her to submit but she refused. I pleaded with Lillith but she agreed with me, didn't want Rebecca to put herself in that much danger. But Rebecca refused, she really wanted Lillith to stay with her. Forced her to stay.”

“That's when you should have called a Specialist,” Ash interjects.

“I know.”

“Then why didn't you?”

“I don't know, I just couldn't.”

Fifth Interlude - Part Five

“Another woman?” Ash demands.

“Yes,” confirms Wesley. “Another woman. She said her name was Lillith, that she'd somehow managed to squeeze through a crack and found herself in Rebecca's head. Then she was gone and Rebecca was back again. “You can't do it,” she said. She told me that for the first time in her life she didn't feel like part of her was missing. That Lillith made her whole.”

“And how did you respond to that?”

“I told her there was nothing I could do. That if she didn't submit to a Purification, I'd have to call in a Specialist who would make a decision about whether a hostile exorcism was necessary.”

Fifth Interlude - Part Four

“Tell me about this woman,” Ash commands. “What was it you saw in her?”

“R-rebecca,” Wesley stutters, “Her name was Rebecca. She looked stunning, stood in that doorway, whispers of the Weave hanging around her like a shroud. I've never thought homo sapiens were much to look at, but she was the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen. As I entered the house she told me she knew who I was. Not what I was exactly, but why I was there. I asked her what she thought that was. When I did that, the shroud around her glistened. “Get rid of me,” she said, but I was completely certain I was talking to another woman.”

Fifth Interlude - Part Three

“It started,” Wesley begins, “When I arrived at a village, in Yorkshire somewhere, in 1923. It was dusk, which made locating the imbalance a bit of a doddle. There were traces everywhere, sparkling brightest round a single cottage set apart from the rest. There was no red; in the residue I mean, which I remember thinking was odd. I wandered round the cottage, getting my bearings and making sure I was at the right place. Once I was certain, I was about to knock when the front door opened.

“I know why you're here,” she said, the woman who answered the door. “You'd better come in.”

Fifth Interlude - Part Two

“I surrendered myself,” Wesley protests. “I've come of my own accord to face the music.”

“Only because your little adventure finally died of old age,” Ash retorts contemptuously. “Now that it's over you think you'll return to the Forest and everything will go back to normal.”

Wesley winces at that, the pain of her passing still a raw open wound. “It... it wasn't an adventure,” he stammers, “I just couldn't do it. Not when I had to. And when I could do it, I didn't want to.”

“And that is a great pity. Now, a judgement will have to be passed. Consequences will have to be faced and accepted. You do understand that, don't you?”

“Of course I do!”

“Good. Now you must tell me everything that happened.”

Fifth Interlude - Part One

Wesley Mustela sits at a table in a drab beige room, grief and resignation hanging heavy from his shoulders. The chair opposite is empty, but Wesley knows eventually someone will sit there, and with them they'll bring judgement and retribution. He stares at the table, hands folded in his lap, waiting.

He wonders what the judgement will be, what form the punishment might take. He knows of a few agents who ran away but not of any that disobeyed. He sighs, knowing in his heart with absolute certainty that he'd do it all over again, if he had the chance. But his body is old and frail now, there'll be no more chances, so he'll happily accept the wrath of the Forest.

That wrath begins with the arrival of a surprising visitor.

“Oh,” Wesley says, “It's you. I thought it'd be...”

“Oak that interviewed you?” Comes the interruption from Ash, an Authority. “Oak talks to those who flee into the Weave, I meet those who hide in the Warp.”